


exile

by An_English_Fan_Girl



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Brother Feels, Bruce Wayne Tries to Be a Good Parent, Depression, Everone Needs a Hug, Hurt Jason Todd, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Song Lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25554841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/An_English_Fan_Girl/pseuds/An_English_Fan_Girl
Summary: Red Hood is done, there to much pain here, he's already in exile, lets make it official. or so He thinks anyway.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 14
Kudos: 119





	exile

**Author's Note:**

> this song just wont leave my head... there are also a couple also from this album that makes me think of Jason Todd and is life so there maybe more on the way... thought probably no in this universe.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osdoLjUNFnA  
> Thanks to Renix for the spell checking!! Hahaha!!

Standing, in the pouring rain of a Gotham Night. Watching what was once his city, his home, Red Hood catches sight of the Shadows from his childhood, the ones who hurt him daily. At one time he would have tried to destroy them, to stop their beating hearts, thinking that would save him.  
The Dark Knight standing tall watching his streets, quiet for once, the red and green of his latest fledgling at his side, one who is always looking to prove himself. So much like Hood and yet so different, this one is the blood son, this one can't be thrown away, discarded when he wasn't perfect, even with more blood on his hands than Hood. There's the stab of pain through the heart that should have never started beating again.

‘I can see you standin', honey  
With his arms around your body  
Laughin' but the joke's not funny at all’

Nightwing flipped on the roof with a loud shout, clearly smiling, even from Hood's hiding spot. The man who tried to call him ‘Brother’, ‘Family’ but only when it suited himself or the others, pulls the fledgling in for a hug. Before turning to watch the sunrise with the Bat, arm still around the other. Another knife pushed its way into Red Hood.

‘And it took you five whole minutes  
To pack us up and leave me with it  
Holdin' all this love out here in the hall’

There is not even the slightest bit of sound as Black Bat appeasers, slowly slinking up to The Bat bruising a kiss to his cheek before joining her brothers. The only one who might try to really include Hood, the one to truly open the door of ‘Brother’. She is sweet but much like the fledgling demon she is somehow exonerated in ways Hood could never be. A smaller stab this time though no less painful.

'I think I've seen this film before  
And I didn't like the ending  
You're not my homeland anymore'

Hood had thought that returning ‘home’ to Gotham was the right thing, to seek revenge. He was wrong on both counts.

  
'So what am I defendin' now?  
You were my town  
Now I'm in exile seein' you out  
I think I've seen this film before'

Even when Hood had realized that revenge isn't the way to go. Nightwing, Black bat and even Batman had tantalized him with the idea of ‘Family’, of truly coming home. It had all been a lie. Pain.

'Hoo, hoo-ooh  
Hoo, hoo-ooh  
Hoo, hoo-ooh

I can see you starin', honey  
Like he's just your understudy'

The rain slowly stopped, no longer providing Hood with a way to hide the tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. From the left Red robin swung in, the Replacement, the one that took Hood's spot in event way. The one who did nothing wrong. RR stepped up to the other siblings, sliding into the group in a way that has never been possible for Hood, even before. More pain, more guilt.

'Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me  
Second, third, and hundredth chances  
Balancin' on breaking branches  
Those eyes add insult to injury'

The pain that Hood had caused to the boy was wrong. And the anger that had really been pain, taken out on an innocent. Hood knew already that he could never truly forgive himself for that, the other things, maybe they had be to done to the guilty but not that. Pain...

'I think I've seen this film before  
And I didn't like the ending  
I'm not your problem anymore  
So who am I offending now?'

Did the Batnest know what was happening? Did they know what the Hood was about to do?

'You were my crown  
Now I'm in exile seein' you out  
I think I've seen this film before  
So I'm leavin' out the side door'

There was a bag leaning heavily on Hood's leg. When had his life become so small to fit in one bag? Perhaps it had always been, with a little respite in a world that wasnt his own.

'So step right out  
There is no amount  
Of cryin' I can do for you

All this time  
We always walked a very thin line  
You didn't even hear me out (You didn't even hear me out)  
You never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs)'

Hood had really tried for a while but… Batman just wouldn't listen. Wouldn't give him a chance. Not like he had with Robin and Black Bat. They were more important clearly. All Hood got was pain; stab wounds in his already broken heart.

'All this time  
I never learned to read your mind (Never learned to read my mind)  
I couldn't turn things around (You never turned things around)  
'Cause you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs)  
So many signs'

Nightwing once again said those pretty words of ‘family’ of ‘love’ and ‘protection’ of ‘brotherhood’ only to leave Hood even more broken and bruised for his other family, his true family, the one he wanted.

'So many signs (You didn't even see the signs)

I think I've seen this film before  
And I didn't like the ending  
You're not my homeland anymore  
So what am I defending now?  
You were my town'

Gotham, the place that had always been his home, the place, though not always pretty, that had always been apart of him, had finally given up on him. This was the home of the Bats and as much as they say he is welcome back in the nest, he wasn't. Too broken, too bloody, with too much pain, wanted by no one.

'Now I'm in exile seein' you out  
I think I've seen this film before  
So I'm leaving out the side door

So step right out  
There is no amount  
Of cryin' I can do for you'

The sun had broken the skyline, bathing the family in golden light. Hood thought it was fitting, the Bats' perfect family right there. The one he never had a place in no matter how much he wanted it. And did he want.

'All this time  
We always walked a very thin line  
You didn't even hear me out (You didn't even hear me out)  
You never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs)

All this time  
I never learned to read your mind (Never learned to read my mind)  
I couldn't turn things around (You never turned things around)  
'Cause you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs)'

With one last look at his lost home Hood shot one last grappling hook in to the Gotham skyline swinging his way one last time through the city that raised him, away from the only people he had called family. The pain threatening to swallow him up. He was unsure whether he would survive the wounds on his heart, where he would go, who he'd be. The only thing he was sure of was this was the last time he was to be in Gotham. The last time Red Hood shall ride. The last time he would see the Bats and the last time they could see him if they looked, not that they would.

'All this time (So many times)  
I never learned to read your mind (So many signs)  
I couldn't turn things around  
'Cause you never gave a warning sign (Never gave a warning sign) '

Back on the roof, full of bats and birds, the sun slowly rising out of the water picked up on the tears, glistening on the cheeks of the occupants, well most of them, the less emotionally stunted ones anyway.

  
‘I just want my Little wing back? Why can I have him back? My little brother?’ Dick Grayson cried into the early morning air.

‘He has grown… not brother you know… need to know new him… show love… trust… not want old him…’ Cass Cain-Wayne wiped away the fresh tears springing in her older bother eyes before they could join the ones that had been steadily coming on from the moment his arms closed around their youngest sibling.

  
‘I know Cass but he will always be my little wing… I love him no matter what. Always have. Always will.’

‘I want him to know that I don't hate him’ Timothy Drake-Wayne whispered, wiping the few tears that had fallen from his own blue eyes, ‘He was Ill… and well He has always been and always will be MY Robin, no offence Dick, he was my hero… why I have become who I am… I want him to know how important he is to me… to this family… I want to finally have my Big brother… if he’ll have me... ‘

‘Ttt- I don't know why you 're so adamant to have Todd back he is just a incompetent murderer, who doesn't want us’. To anyone who didn't know Damian would have been fooled by his statement into thinking that it was scathing and harsh but if you knew the littlest about the youngers Wayne you could hear the pain and the underlying fear of rejection by an older brother, that he may have never wanted but had and didn't want to lose, in his own way.

‘Robin!’ snapped Bruce Wayne, in a voice not quite that of Batman, perhaps closer to that of a farther, ‘He is your Brother. He is Family.’ the last statement petered off. Steal blue eyes glazed over for a moment lost in thought, ‘And we will prove that we are worthy of him.’ was whispered in to the fresh sunlight.

This was a tradition started the year after he had lost his son, the first time, when it was just himself and Dick staring out over the water reminiscing about the boy they lost a year before, changed when his boy had returned to them, to a day of planning on how they could bring their lost boy home. Slowly the others had joined, Cass brought her charming silence, Tim brought his most prized pictures of his second Robin and finally Damian who though he didn't like to show it, brought his best drawing of his Brother that he capched when they worked together both in and out of costumes. This year was supposed to be different, this year they had wanted Jason Todd with them, each of them had wanted to show him how much he meant to them, how they were so happy that he is home at last but no one could find him over the last few days in any of his know safe house or on patrol, it was as if he had disappeared. They had each left him a message hoping that one of them would get through and that he would be here but it did not seem to work. The key and papers tucked safely in Bruce's utility belt seem to weigh him down… his son wasn't coming home this year yet…

  
Neither were to know that big things were coming for each of them, nor that perhaps April 27th would be a little less melancholy.


End file.
